It's The Same Feisty Verbeek, But With Fewer Penalties

Verbeek Keeping His Cool

AVON — The next time Whalers right wing Pat Verbeek is whistled for a penalty, he will tie or pass his coach, Paul Holmgren, for 37th on the NHL's all-time penalty-minute list.

It is inevitable Verbeek will be penalized. He has 1,682 penalty minutes in his career, an average of more than two minutes a game.

Verbeek (11th season) has two minutes less than Holmgren (10 seasons) and, by the way, three minutes less than Gordie Howe (26 seasons).

If Verbeek, 28, continues at that pace, he will no doubt pass 2,000 and finish his career among the league's top 20. He already is fourth on the Whalers' all-time list with 739 and remains second on the New Jersey Devils' list with 943, although he hasn't played for the Devils since being traded to the Whalers after the 1988-89 season.

But don't expect Verbeek's next penalty to come immediately.

Verbeek, who has led the Whalers in penalty minutes the past three seasons, is far off his usual pace of 200-plus minutes a season.

Although the Whalers ranked first in the league before games played Sunday with an average of 33 penalty minutes a game, Verbeek isn't to blame.

At the rate he's going, Verbeek, who has 22 minutes in 14 games, will finish with 132 penalty minutes in 84 games this season.

Verbeek actually went five games without a penalty earlier this season. Remember the brawl with the Rangers Oct. 12, when the Whalers set a team record with 125 penalty minutes? Verbeek accounted for only two.

He's not exactly Lady Byng material -- the trophy the NHL gives to the most gentlemanly player each season -- and never will be. But this is not the Verbeek fans know, either.

Verbeek insists he hasn't mellowed.

"I still have to play aggressive," he said. "It's my

temperament and it's the way I play best. If I'm not playing that way then I'm not playing the way I can or the way I should.

"I can't be a wimp out there, you know what I mean?"

But he also realizes a captain can't spend that much time in the penalty box without compromising his effectiveness with referees.

Holmgren made Verbeek captain the day of the Rangers game -- with a warning to cool it on the ice.

"I talked to him about it twice, once before the season started and after I named him captain," Holmgren said. "A captain should have quite a bit of respect from the referees around the league.

"I think Pat understands we need him on the ice. He has remained calm. There have been times where I'm sure he had to bite his lip but he's done a pretty good job."

No more sassing referees for Verbeek, who has picked up more than a few misconduct penalties in his career for doing just that.

"I'm not yelling at them," he said. "It's helping. You have to be smart in how you talk to the referee.

"I just talk to them calmly. Before, I would yell at them, be emotional instead of talking to them calmly."

Verbeek also is avoiding some of the retaliation penalties he's known for -- the extra shot he might give an opponent after the whistle.

"They're calling everything," he said. "You don't know what's going to be called and what's not going to be called."

Said Holmgren: "It hasn't taken any of his feistiness, or his aggressiveness or assertiveness away. I think he's playing as hard as he has ever played."

It might be good for the Whalers that his penalties are down, but with only three goals in 14 games, his scoring is off, too. It's even off last season's pace when he struggled and finished with only 23 goals.

Is it possible Verbeek can't have one without the other?

"No," he said. "That's just the way it's going right now. Emotionally, I'm just as much in the game. I'm getting involved physically. It's just a matter of working hard. I'm getting shots. They're just not going in right now."

McKenzie misses practice Wing Jim McKenzie has soreness in his hip flexor and missed practice Sunday. He is day to day, as is wing Murray Craven, who was scratched Saturday with a bone bruise on his foot. ... Holmgren wants to do something to end his team's 0-51 slump. But he's not looking to Springfield, the Whalers' American Hockey League affiliate. "I think at some point we might have to look at shaking it up by bringing somebody up," he said. "We're not at that point yet."